Why Newspaper Published Fake Interview with Politician, Called it ‘A Little Piece of Satire’

As iMediaEthics wrote this past weekend, Falkland Islands’ only newspaper, the weekly Penguin News, published a fake interview purporting to be with Argentina’s foreign minister, Héctor Timerman.

The Penguin News’ managing editor Lisa Watson explained the interview, which was clearly marked at the bottom as not real, was “a little piece of satire, partly to lend some lightness to the week but also to entertain Islanders by having a small laugh at his expense.” Watson told iMediaEthics by email:

“The ‘Two Minutes’ is a weekly light-hearted interview – it always has the same questions and interviewees are asked to be ‘entertaining’.

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“There had been a great deal of coverage of Mr Timerman’s visit to London and his refusal to acknowledge Falkland Islanders – he was quoted as saying we ‘didn’t exist’. We’d given it much serious coverage and decided to simply to a little piece of satire, partly to lend some lightness to the week but also to entertain Islanders by having a small laugh at his expense. It was very well received by readers, who are all a little fed up with being treated with such contempt by the Argentine government. No we didn’t invite the gentleman to be interviewed – sadly as I have already pointed out, he and the rest of the Argentine Government refused to acknowledge our existence as a people in our own right.

“The piece was satire and it was made very clear that it was no more than that.”